Hi Holly and everyone,(Holly, because you know so much about wrens!), today I saw a wren,I thought, acting in a very strange way. At first I didn't even think it was a bird, all hunched up in the back, some animal, that looked like a mouse, running like a mouse, veeery faaast!!When it ran past me again, I realized it was a male wren. Then the female ran past me, looking even more like a very fast mouse, head and tail stretched out, just like a mouse. Then I realized, they were trying to distract me from their babies. When I stood still, they went back to feeding them in the shrub. I was absolutely fascinated by what happened. Has anyone else whitnessed this before? For me, this was a first. I haven't seen a little bird run that fast before,like the "roadrunner in the cartoon"
ahhh the rodent run! Its pretty hilarious to watch isn't it! Definitely a distraction technique and a very effective one at that.
Well, Holly, let me put it that way, I thought there was something terribly wrong with the bird, and we might have to catch it and take it to the Animal Emergency Centre. But it would have been very hard to catch, it was running soooo fast! Thanks Holly, you are probabely laughing about me right now? Everyone knows about the"rodent run" except me?!?
M-L
No I am not laughing - I am insanely jealous!!! I would love to spend some time watching mum and dad fairy-wren and their babies!
Its not a behaviour that they do very often so it would be something that not a lot of people get to see.
Thanks Holly, that made my day, I'm sooo happy now!!!
M-L
See how well it works for them,they look at us as just another predator and even we fall for it and get distracted,They have another trick popping up in the bracken or long grass just meters away then drop out of sight then pop up again a couple of meters further away while you watch them mum and the kids sneak off in the other direction.If you don't fall for it straight away i have see them drag one wing and carrying on making out there stuck, even though i know is a trick i still fall for it!
Wow sparrow,thanks, I have learned so much today. Seeing we have a few wrens, I will try to find out more about their behaviour.I like the way they sing aswell, we have the shrubs they feed in right outside our windows, I can watch them all day.(if I have the time)
M-L
You are not the only one who has not seen this before. :( Me never. :(
Hey that sounds fascinating... I was thinking that maybe I have seen what Sparrow described recently but at the time was probably so caught up chasing the elusive little b@#$%^ through the scrub that I didn't even realise I was being played!! LMAO They are so funny aren't they our little feathered friends?
I have been able to watch my very waterlogged catbirds feeding their baby outside my bedroom window in the past few days. You know how we say a human baby's cry is such that the mum can't ignore it? Well I am pretty sure that the Catbird parents will do anything to shut up the insistent loud rasping from their hungry brood as well!!!!
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Birdie, love the way you draw a parallel between the catbirds feeding their babies, and mums doing anything to shut up the loud rasping :"can we have a Big Mac,Muuum!!" We used to give them books to "shut them up", something catbird mums can't do!
M-L
Ha ha ha .... Araminta I think the Big Mac is replaced by a big fat juicy berry shoved down the gullet ......works wonders even if there is no toy at the end of it for them!
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hey speaking of rodent runs...... those red capped Plovers on the beach looked just like a small rodent when they were scurrying across the sand... I had to blink to make sure I hadn't imagined them! And then they sit really low into the sand and it is like they have just disappeared before your eyes!
Sunshine Coast Queensland